Question: Is Usher's sister real or a ghost? How would she be considered a ghost? Explain your answer using examples from the short story. No answer is wrong.
(In our class, Nick was certain the sister was a ghost. I want to know if anybody else saw this as Nick did.)
2 comments:
A response by Chris Primo on 1-17-12:
I think that Madeline could be considered a ghost although some of the students in the class beg to differ. The feelings that the two twins shared were very similar, and this gives the reader some idea that Madeline may have just been used as a way to describe more of the fear and guilt that Usher was feeling. For example, it became clearer to me that Usher knew that Madeline wasn’t dead, but he just didn’t want her body to be used as research by doctors. At the same time, the thought of burying her allows the reader to be able to see how Madeline was used as a build-up to show how much guilt and fear that Usher had. Not only was she used for this expression, but she was also used as a way to describe the physical illness that Usher was undergoing as well. For example, she would always have unexpected paralyses, which is kind of what Usher’s mental illness felt like.
I wouldn’t be able to say for sure if Usher’s sister was a ghost. I would say that she was real because Usher had buried her. But when she came back to life, she seemed pretty ghost-like. But I’m not so sure that it really was a ghost of Madeline that killed Roderick. It was more the fear and guilt of burying Madeline that killed Roderick. But it just doesn’t seem to me like Madeline appeared as a ghost. I guess I would say she was more zombie like, because I don’t think a ghost would be able to kill someone after coming back from the dead. Ghosts just go right through things. But she seemed to be still kind of human-like when she came back and killed Usher.
-Andrew Manott
Post a Comment